The Saltcast Adventure by Beth Carpenter

[wolfbiter]

cross-posting my separate review

Some thoughts pinging off what others brought up:

@JoshGrams

But then it really got its hooks into me. And that ending… huh. Nice.

This is how I felt. I really got more invested than I expected.

@jwalrus

I was sad that in the final conversation with Madeleine, you can’t move on until you’ve taken every conversation option. I hope that I could have the choice of whether or not to tell her how angry I was at her for leaving.

I agree–in general any time we’re choosing conversation options it feels kind of bad to be compelled to take them all. Like, what am I (the player) here for? I also felt a bit that way about that specific conversation (and to a lesser extent the one where you tell Madelaine what has happened in the last 10 years).

@mathbrush

I reach what felt like the apex of the plot, but then…there was Act III, which felt like it let the wind out of the sails.

Huh, interesting. I liked Act III (it seemed thematically relevant, in contrast tothe Hydra King and the Queen’s relationship) but I can see how you could feel that way. It’s usually my pet peeve in sci-fi or fantasy books when it’s like, “new chapter, here’s a bunch of new characters who are the third-generation descendants of the characters you already cared about.”